????????????????

He was making fun of Pineapple Guy with that statement.

Then I can hop with the Captain up the jetway celebrating and talking trash to each other to psych us up for the next 4 legs that day, right?

Technical question about reinstatements:

1) AE just closed, 01/01/2010.
2) Pilots are MD'd.
3) Another bid comes out (as per CP/ACL rumor) in June - lets say on 06/02/2010 with the standard closing date 210 days out which is 12/29/2010.
4) You have reinstatement rights if MD'd on the 01/01/2010 bid if you are converted to your MD category 180 days prior to 12/29/2010, so you have to be converted after 07/02/2010 (12/29 - 180 days).

Is that right? So if you are converted from say 7ER ATL to MD88 ATL then you have to start training after 07/02 to have reinstatement rights?

Seems like TO ME it should be if you were MD'd on the last bid you have reinstatement rights on the next bid.


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Reinstatement Rights
Pilots who have been involuntary/mandatorily displaced from a category have reinstatement rights to that category for 180 days after their MD conversion date. If a subsequent bid is posted with a closing date within this 180 day period and a pilot with reinstatement rights wishes to exercise those rights, he will be awarded a vacancy to his former category ahead of pilots with an AE preference.

Reinstatements to a category will be awarded in seniority order, and are processed as part of the AE bid awards. A pilot’s available reinstatement rights are shown on the DBMS page for entering AE bid preferences. To exercise your reinstatement rights, you must:
• Select the reinstatement box on the AE bid page, and
• Put the desired reinstatement category somewhere in your AE bid (it can include restrictions such as Low Number or Low Percentage).

I am not sure where you got the info you copied on reinstatement but it is incorrect. Here is the section right from the contract.

12. A pilot who holds an MD will, without regard to the standing bids of senior pilots, be
reinstated to the category from which he was displaced if:
a. a vacancy is posted in such category and the earliest conversion date stated in the
posting is within the 180 day period following the conversion date of his MD,
b. his standing bid indicates a request for such reinstatement, and
c. such vacancy has not been filled by reinstatement of a pilot senior to him who was
also awarded an MD from such category.


Note that your 180 day clock runs from your date of conversion to the earliest possible date of conversion in the new bid. If they post a bid 1 June that would normally be 1 July. You would still have reinstatement rights for any MD you may have received on this bid.

If a pilot is not seat locked when displaced, would a reinstatement to the previous category incur a seat lock?

They could assign training by the 4th, but they'd have to get real busy. The CPSC said Crew Planning / Training took New Years day off.

Why didn't you stagger your bid 90%73N, 90%320, 91%73N, 91%320, and so on, or something to that effect?

I was in ATL today when the bid was posted. A certain VP was there to take questions and to pass out thank-you meals for flying on the holiday.

I eavesdropped on a conversation he had with another man dressed in a suit and here's what I heard.

NOTE: infer what you want from these comments.

-- the decision to NOT furlough was made 18 months ago, that is over.
-- marketing has already come to ops and told us that they need more bodies on domestic. We agreed to set the ALVs on all domestic categories to 82 hours this summer. They wanted more, but we didn't have the bodies and training availability to make it happen.
-- marketing is now asking us to bolster international categories ... NOW! and we simply don't have the bodies. expect that to get readdressed on the June AE.

Happens all the time on the ER. On a more reserved crew you may only see a high five or a fist bump.

Just a question about the training sequence. Which of the following gets trained first? AE or VD/MD? I just wanna see how long I'll be on reserve in my new category before guys junior to me gets trained on the new a/c.

Thanks.